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< Criticism of Mormonism | Books | Mormonism 101
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==Polygamy Today== | ==Polygamy Today== | ||
===249=== | ===249=== | ||
+ | {{IndexClaim | ||
+ | |claim= | ||
+ | *The author state, | ||
+ | <blockquote> | ||
+ | [T]hose who practice polygamy today are probably much more consistent with the teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that condemns them. | ||
+ | </blockquote> | ||
+ | |response= | ||
+ | *Polygamy, as practiced by various groups today, is ''not'' "consistent with the teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young." | ||
+ | *{{Detail|Polygamy}} | ||
+ | }} | ||
==Endnotes== | ==Endnotes== |
Chapter 15: The Temple | A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson
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Chapter 17: Joseph Smith |
Their views do not move us toward the solution or definition of problems that public debate is for. Instead, they deal with the phony and the titillating and the shocking, and raise once again questions that were decided long ago.
—Tom Braden, "I Was the Target of a Hate Campaign," LOOK (October 22, 1963), 60.
I would not want you to believe that we bear any animosity toward the Negro. "Darkies" are wonderful people, and they have their place in our church.
President Joseph Fielding Smith Look magazine, 22 October 1963, 79 [sic]
Response
And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.32
Response
Many shall be purified, and made white…33
When I looked for good, then evil came [unto me]: and when I waited for light, there came darkness… My skin is black upon me.34
Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.35
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.36
If God cursed Ham and the curse was blackness so that all of his children came out black, then what shade of black would they be? Black people come in every shade-but if God cursed Ham, it would mean that every cursed black person would have to be the same shade… If Ham were cursed, the color could never change, because it would not be determined by genetics, it would be determined by the curse. The only way that a child could come out a different shade than a parent who carries the curse would be if the curse changed.37
You may inquire of the intelligent of the world whether they can tell why the aborigines of this country are dark, loathsome, ignorant, and sunken into the depths of degradation...When the Lord has a people, he makes covenants with them and gives unto them promises: then, if they transgress his law, change his ordinances, and break the covenants he has made with them, he will put a mark upon them, as in the case of the Lamanites and other portions of the house of Israel; but by-and-by they will become a white and delightsome people.25
Response
You may inquire of the intelligent of the world whether they can tell why the aborigines of this country are dark, loathsome, ignorant, and sunken into the depths of degradation; and they cannot tell. I can tell you in a few words: They are the seed of Joseph, and belong to the household of God; and he will afflict them in this world, and save every one of them hereafter, even though they previously go into hell. When the Lord has a people, he makes covenants with them and gives unto them promises: then, if they transgress his law, change his ordinances, and break the covenants he has made with them, he will put a mark upon them, as in the case of the Lamanites and other portions of the house of Israel; but by-and-by they will become a white and delightsome people.25
I feel to bless this people, and they are a God-blessed people. Look at them, and see the difference from their condition a few years ago! Brethren who have been on missions, can you see any difference in this people from the time you went away until your return? [Voices: "Yes."] You can see men and women who are sixty or seventy years of ago looking young and handsome; but let them apostatize, and they will become gray-haired, wrinkled, and black, just like the Devil. If we will stand up as men and women of God, the yoke shall never be placed upon our necks again; and all hell cannot overthrow us, even with the United States to help them. It is not pleasant to the natural feelings to be obliged to talk in this manner about fellow-citizens with whom we have been reared; but when they act like the Devil, it is impossible for us to bow to their unjust and illegal mandates without becoming as corrupt as they are. It is an honour to resist the wicked; and my name will be had in, honour, and so will Joseph Smiths, and so will your names, for not bowing to their iniquitous doings.
There are statements in our literature by the early brethren which we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same things… All I can say to that is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world. We get our truth and our light line upon line and precept upon precept. We have now had added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness, and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don't matter any more. It doesn't make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year [1978]. It is a new day and a new arrangement, and the Lord has now given the revelation that sheds light out into the world on this subject. As to any slivers of light or any particles of darkness of the past, we forget about them. We now do what meridian Israel did when the Lord said the gospel should go to the gentiles. We forget all the statements that limited the gospel to the house of Israel, and we start going to the gentiles.5
They came into the world slaves, mentally and physically. Change their situation with the whites, and they would be like them. They have souls, and are subjects of salvation. Go into Cincinnati or any city, and find an educated negro, who rides in his carriage, and you will see a man who has risen by the powers of his own mind to his exalted state of respectability. The slaves in Washington are more refined than many in high places, and the black boys will take the shine off many of those they brush and wait on.31
Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.26
Response
If the Government of the United States, in Congress assembled, had the right to pass an anti-polygamy bill, they had also the right to pass a law that slaves should not be abused as they have been; they had also a right to make a law that negroes should be used like human beings, and not worse than dumb brutes. For their abuse of that race, the whites will be cursed, unless they repent.27
[T]hose who practice polygamy today are probably much more consistent with the teachings of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that condemns them.
Response
25 Brigham Young, "Re-Organization of the High Council, Etc.," Journal of Discourses, reported by G.D. Watt 8 October 1859, Vol. 7 (London: Latter-Day Saint's Book Depot, 1860), 336, partially quoted in McKeever and Johnson, Mormonism 101, 235.
26 Brigham Young, "The Persecutions of the Saints, Etc.," Journal of Discourses, reported by G.D. Watt 8 March 1863, Vol. 10 (London: Latter-Day Saint's Book Depot, 1865), 110, quoted in McKeever and Johnson, Mormonism 101, 241.
27 Brigham Young, "The Persecutions of the Saints, Etc.," 111.
28 Emerson and Smith, Divided by Faith, 26.
29 Albert J. Raboteau, Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 167.
30 Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 5 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1978), 217-218, as quoted in McKeever and Johnson, Mormonism 101, 238.
31 Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 5, 217.
32 2 Nephi 5:21, quoted in McKeever and Johnson, Mormonism 101, 234.
33 Daniel 12:10.
34 Job 30:26, 30.
35 Joel 2:6.
36 Psalms 51:7.
37 Frederick K.C. Price, Race Religion and Racism: A Bold Encounter With Division in the Church (Los Angeles: Faith One Publishing, 1999), 149.
38 Wood, The Arrogance of Faith, 88, emphasis added.
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